Stage two of jury seating to start in Jeffs trial

Abbott, in court, agrees with judge

Mejo Okon /Special to the Standard-Times A courtroom drawing shows Warren Jeffs (left) with his lead attorney, Deric Walpole, during the first day of jury selection for Jeffs' trial at the Tom Green County Courthouse in San Angelo. The leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is charged with two counts of sexual assault of a child.

Patrick Dove/Standard-Times Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, steps out of a Tom Green County Sheriff's Department vehicle on the east side of the Tom Green County Courthouse Monday. Jeffs is being tried on two counts of sexual assault of a child.

Patrick Dove

Patrick Dove/Standard-Times Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott talks to members of the media after the first day of jury selection for the trial of Warren Jeffs. Asked in court if the trial was starting too soon, Abbott said the case hadn't gone to trial soon enough.

Patrick Dove

SAN ANGELO, Texas - The defense and prosecution today will open up with questions for potential jurors who have undergone basic screening in the trial of Warren Jeffs.

Jeffs, 55, the leader of the polygamy-sanctioning Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is on trial in San Angelo on two counts of sexual assault of a child.

Jury selection began Monday in the Tom Green County Courthouse, and the court heard another plea for more time from the defense.

Jeffs' lead attorney, hired last week, sought a continuance, which 51st District Judge Barbara Walther denied.

"Given the gravity of this case, consider a request for 180 days to file the appropriate motions," Deric Walpole said. "If this case proceeds, a terrible injustice will be done."

Walpole, who also sought — and was denied — a continuance in a pretrial motion Friday, said additional time is required in part so he can file further pleadings, which he said might include motions about Jeffs' First Amendment religious liberties being violated. The FLDS practices polygamy.

Walpole said that he has been working 18 to 20 hours a day to get ready since he took on the case July 20 but that he needed more time. Walpole is the most recent in a series of attorneys to represent Jeffs, whose trial has been set back a number of times as he fired lawyers and sought new representation.

The prosecution argued that there had been too many delays.

Attorney General Greg Abbott attended the first day of the trial, sitting at the prosecution table with lead Prosecutor Eric Nichols. Asked if the trial was starting too soon, Abbott said the case hadn't started soon enough.

"This case has been scheduled for trial previously," Abbott said. "If anything, it has been too long."

After Walther denied the motion for continuance — heard in a courtroom away from the potential jurors — she began the basic juror qualification process.

When the judge entered the courtroom, the scores of prospective jurors rose and then were seated again, the creak of benches echoing through the high-ceilinged room.

"Welcome to your courthouse," she said.

Jeffs sat facing the potential jurors in a black suit and a tie, a change from the orange jumpsuit and chains he has worn to pretrial hearings since he came to Texas in November. Walpole sat with him. Other defense attorneys in the courthouse included Emily Detoto, Jeff Kearney and Reagan Wynn. Three FLDS members were seated in an area reserved for the public.

Jeffs sat at the defense table in his perpetually stooped posture, speaking only occasionally to his attorneys in a voice inaudible to the gallery.

Half of the potential 280 jurors were set to come in the morning and an equal number in the afternoon. They filled out questionnaires — the court declined to provide the Standard-Times with a copy — and the prosecution and defense today will ask the potential jurors about their answers. Attorneys and Walther could be heard discussing the questions, such as one regarding which television shows the prospective jurors regularly watch.

Walther dismissed more than 40 potential jurors.

"I had been following the case," Joe Angel Mendez said after he was dismissed. He said he had a family member going through surgery, and he was indifferent to being on the jury.

Other reasons people could be excused included age or a medical condition, Walther said.

After Walther said people couldn't serve if convicted of certain crimes, one woman stood and announced that she was "on probation for injury to an elderly person."

Walther said she could talk about her situation at the judge's bench, and that woman was later dismissed.

The court recessed about 3:45 p.m.

The charges against Jeffs, like those against his fellow sect members who have been prosecuted, are based mainly on evidence seized during the raid of the YFZ Ranch three and a half years ago, evidence which has repeatedly been challenged by FLDS defense attorneys as being inadmissible because the search warrant that allowed the raid was based on information from a hoax call.

Another challenge was mounted last week in the form of a sealed motion that Walther has said will be heard after the jury selection process is under way.

Meanwhile, in Austin an appeal based in part on a challenge of the admissibility of the evidence sits before the Third Court of Appeals, awaiting a ruling. The appeal is against the seven-year sentence of Michael Emack, a 60-year-old sect member who entered a no-contest plea in his case earlier this year. Emack was sentenced for a second-degree felony, sexual assault of a child, related to his "celestial marriage" to an underage girl.